Peter Bird from GRDC explains how the annual Grains Research Updates bring together the latest research, technology and market insights in the industry.
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00:00Back of the Crown, which everybody has enjoyed.
00:03Registrations are 760 odd, so actually more than we were expecting.
00:07So some great turnout, and that's on the back of a tremendous season from difficult conditions,
00:12tremendous grain production.
00:14So 60 odd topics over two days.
00:17The plenaries around the main topics around AI, data, technology, automation,
00:26how those things come together.
00:28We welcomed our new Board Chair in Sharon Staric,
00:31and she presented an update from GRDC and directions from GRDC investment.
00:36We welcomed our new Panel Chairman in Gary Lang, our Western Panel Chairman,
00:40who presented two quite prestigious awards.
00:43One, the Seed of Light Award, which went to Svetlana Micic from Deep Herd,
00:48and the emerging leader to SLR research agronomist Kate Witham.
00:53And our plenary sessions around the data and the ag tech
00:58kicked off with Ben Kelly from John Deere.
01:03So just giving us this picture of what the future may hold in terms of automation,
01:08moving into technology.
01:11And we had Raj Khosla from Kansas State University,
01:15a big trip for him coming down under to Perth.
01:19Once again, just giving us this vision of the technology that's available for us
01:24and for the future.
01:26So that's been the highlights for me, just the vision.
01:29Excellent.
01:30And those two speakers both paid tribute to how adaptive they find
01:33West Australian growers to be.
01:35So that's been the general consensus from people who've been in attendance
01:37as well as the wider industry.
01:39Yeah, absolutely.
01:40The way that West Australian growers adopt technology,
01:43they've got limited rainfall and limited, not the best soils,
01:46and they produce these amazing crops,
01:48and that's just absolutely on the back of adoption of new practices and technology.